Page 30 of The Art of Us

Kal snapped his fingers as he paced in the school parking lot. Part of him wanted to storm back into Wasden’s art room to make sure Ireland was okay. Another part—the rational, sane part—wanted to drive away and wait to see her until it was all over. She’d meet him at Geppetto’s. She would tell him what all went down then. Wasden had assured him that he had a living arrangement set up for Ireland and that he would get her moved in after they met together. He assured Kal that Ireland wouldn’t spend any more nights alone in the woods.

Gotta trust the guy, Kal thought and finally stopped snapping and pacing and instead got in his car and drove home.

Of course, he still snapped and paced once he got home and made it to his room. His out-of-control emotions were awesome times zero. He needed to have it together so that when he saw Ireland that night, he could be there for her.

His bedroom door opened, and his friend Cooper poked his head in. “Dude, ’sup?”

“Not much.” He had to lie because there was no way to explain to Cooper about Ireland without it being weird. “What about you?”

Cooper sat at the desk. “Yeah. Same. Not much. Just feel like I’m in a Wonkaverse sometimes.”

“Am I supposed to . . . ?”

“What?” Cooper pulled a couple of pens from the Darth Vader mug and drummed them on the desk.

“Know what the Wonkaverse is?”

The drumming stopped. “You know. When the whole universe feels like it’s all wonky.”

Kal laughed. “You just made that up, didn’t you?”

“No. Maybe. I’m not sure, actually. I mighta heard it somewhere. But maybe not.”

“You’re early.” Coming home to worry about Ireland suddenly seemed like a good idea. The band members were either on time or a few minutes late. No one was ever early.

Cooper frowned and checked his phone as if he thought Kal was lying about him being early. “Yeah. Needed to get out of my head for a minute.”

“You okay?”

The drumming on the desk had started up again. “Yeah. It’s just the Wonkaverse.”

Kal had his own case of nuclear anxiety and didn’t have the ability to deal with Cooper’s nerves too, so he moved to the door. “Let’s head to the back building. The others should be showing up pretty soon.” The back building was a mother-in-law apartment. They’d meant to have Kal’s grandpa stay there so he would still have his autonomy, but when they realized how bad off his grandpa was physically, they decided to keep him with them in the main house. Kal’s parents had let Kal take over the back building for the band’s practice. They’d been using the back half of Asha’s garage before. Her parents were glad to have the whole operation relocated so they could use that space to park an Indian Sport Chief motorcycle that Asha’s dad had been wanting.

Cooper followed Kal to the back building. Once inside, Kal opened the mini fridge and got himself a bottle of seltzer water. “Want one?” he asked Cooper, who had wandered over to Bailey’s drum set and tapped his fingers on the cymbals, making a slushytisksound with his every tap.

“No. Thanks. Maybe a Coke?”

Kal fished a can of Coke from the fridge and handed it to Cooper, who opened it, took a long swig, and then moved like he was going to set the open can down on the vintage amplifier that Kal had adorned with stickers from his favorite bands. Kal narrowed his eyes at his friend and gave a small shake of his head. Cooper caught the meaning and pulled his hand back, still holding the can.

Sometimes that guy didn’t think things through. He knew what the amp meant to Kal. If anyone spilled anything on it, Kal was pretty sure he’d lose it. It had been his grandpa’s. Two of the stickers on it were old and weathered. His grandpa had been the one to place them. One for Rush and one for Queen.

Kal’s dad had wanted to throw the amp away, but Kal had saved it from the garbage heap.

Cooper finished his drink, his fingers tapping out a rhythm on the can as if he was anxious about something.

Asha came in just as Kal was about to ask Cooper what was up again. Her blue-green hair was in one long braid that hung over her shoulder. It matched the little blue-green heart she’d painted on her cheekbone. Asha pulled her guitar from its case and started lightly tugging the strings, running her fingers up and down the length of them.

“New strings?” Kal asked her.

“Yeah. It was time.” She turned on a tuning app on her phone as she adjusted the tuning keys and saddle.

“Hands off the drums, Cooper.”

Cooper jumped up at hearing Bailey’s voice and splayed his hands out as if to prove they were empty. “I was just sitting there. I wasn’t touching them.”

“I heard the cymbals as I was walking up.” Bailey walked around the wires coiled together on the floor like spilled pasta and shooed Cooper out of her way.

Asha laughed at Cooper getting caught.

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